Summer Pie Dough
This pie dough, made with half butter and half vegetable shortening is perfect for the summer months when making, and working with all-butter pastry doughs, such as P¢te Bris©e, can be challenging.
The recipe is from my Patisserie Lanciani days, and the one I adopted for use in my Martha’s Vineyard pastry shop. The method is quite different from traditional tart and pie dough where the butter (or shortening) is cut into the flour. Here, the butter and shortening are briefly creamed together, with the flour mixed in briefly followed by the water.
The result is a tasty pie dough that’s easy to roll out and crimp, even in a warm kitchen.
Yield: 1 ¾ lb of dough, enough for a double crust 9″ or 10″ pie
Ingredients:
Summer Pie Dough
½ cup (4 oz / 113 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
½ cup (4 oz / 113 g) vegetable shortening, room temperature
2 ¼ cup (10.5 oz / 298 g) all-purpose flour
¾ cup + 2 tbl (4 oz / 113 g) cake flour, sifted
¼ cup + 2 tbl (5 fl oz) cold water
1 tsp (.25 oz / 7 g) salt
1 â…› tsp (.25 oz / 7 g) sugar
Special tools and equipment needed:
- Stand mixer with paddle, or hand-held mixer
- Scale
Pre-recipe preparations:
- Let butter come to room temperature. It should be waxy, not super soft. Looking for a similar texture to the shortening.
Directions:
- Beat the butter and shortening together with paddle on medium speed (KA #4) just until homogenous, about 20 seconds. Do not cream until light as for a cake.
- Stir flours together in a mixing bowl. Add to bowl with butter and shortening mixture.
- Mix on low speed (KA # 1) until the flours starts to clump up within the butter/shortening, about 15 seconds.
- In small bowl, whisk together the cold water, salt, and sugar.
- On low speed (KA # 1) pour 90 % of the water in a slow stream and mix just until the dough starts to come together. Add remaining water if necessary.
- Divide the dough into two packages, one slightly larger (14 oz) than the other (for the bottom crust).
- Place two pieces of plastic wrap on the counter and place a ball of dough in each. Cover the with the plastic film and press into a circle.
- Refrigerate for at least two hours or overnight. Pie dough may also be frozen for up to month.
Note:
The notations KA # _ refer to the speed number on a Kitchen Aid mixer.